Thomas Edwin Thornhill

Entered into eternal life on October 28, 2019, Thomas (Tommy) Edwin Thornhill of Charleston, South Carolina. He loved Grace Church Cathedral, Clemson University, our nation, his city of Charleston, and his family. He gave his life unselfishly in service to the honor of these.

Mr. Thornhill was born on October 7, 1928, in Summerville, South Carolina, the son of Theodore Wilbur and Ama Van Noy Smith Thornhill. He graduated from Charleston High School in 1944 and Clemson University in 1948 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering; he received a certificate in business from Babson College in 1949. Mr. Thornhill spent 33 years in the gas and oil business as Secretary-Treasurer of Seaboard Gas Company and then as Vice- President and Treasurer of the Charleston Oil Company, the South’s oldest oil distributor. After the Charleston Oil Company sale which he helped to negotiate, Mr. Thornhill taught business at The Citadel for a short period of time. He then joined the Max L. Hill Company in 1981 as a commercial real estate agent.

In 1993, Mr. Thornhill became one of the founding stockholders of Clement, Crawford and Thornhill, Inc. Mr. Thornhill earned the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member of the National Association of Realtors) designation, the highest designation in the commercial real estate industry. Mr. Thornhill was made President Emeritus and Secretary-Treasurer of the Company in 2000, but he remained active in the business and kept his license until June 2018. Additionally, he served on the Board of Directors of First Federal Savings and Loan from 1979-2008 and First Financial Holdings from 1987-2008.

Mr. Thornhill was proud to have served his country. He received an honorable discharge at age 16 after serving in the U.S. Army Transport Service as deck crew on the Medical Hospital Ship Louis A. Milne during World War II. Upon his graduation from Clemson, he was commissioned as an Army officer, and he retired as Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve (Field Artillery) after 26 years of service.

Mr. Thornhill was a member of Grace Episcopal Cathedral for his entire life, serving on the Vestry a total of 24 years from the 1960s to 2016. During two of those years, he served as Warden, and he chaired two major capital campaigns for the church. At the end of his last vestry term, he was recognized by the Dean as Vestryman Emeritus.

Many know Mr. Thornhill as the person who helped revive the joggling board, first by building and painting them in the basement of his Tradd Street home. During the tricentennial celebration of South Carolina in 1970, he founded the Old Charleston Joggling Board Company to make new versions of the city’s iconic piazza furnishing, and he remained involved in the company until his death.

Mr. Thornhill was active in numerous community and state affairs. In addition to being on many civic boards and committees, he served as president of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, Historic Charleston Foundation, the Kiwanis Club, the Charles Towne Landing Foundation, the Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, and the United Way. He also served on the S.C. Water Resources Commission, the S.C. Tricentennial Commission, and as president of the Clemson National Alumni Association and the Ashley Hall School Board of Trustees. He was chairman of the Charleston County Tricentennial Celebration in 1970.

Mr. Thornhill received numerous awards for his civic engagement and was humbled by recognitions like the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America, the Charleston Chamber of Commerce Joseph P. Riley Leadership Award, the Frances R. Edmunds Award from the Historic Charleston Foundation, the Kiwanis International Tablet of Honor, the Clemson University Distinguished Alumni Award, and the establishment of the Thomas E. Thornhill Kiwanis Scholarship Endowment at the Coastal Community Foundation in his honor. On the occasion of his retirement, Charleston Mayor John J. Tecklenburg proclaimed March 24, 2016, as Tommy Thornhill Day in the city. In April 2017, Mr. Thornhill was honored with the Order of the Palmetto, the state of South Carolina’s highest civilian award bestowed by the Governor.

Mr. Thornhill was a member of the New England Society, the St. Andrews Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Carolina Yacht Club, Old Town Club, and the Kiwanis Club of Charleston.

Mr. Thornhill was predeceased by his wife of fifty years, Mardelle Musk Thornhill, and by his brother, Van Noy Thornhill. He is survived by his two daughters, Ama Thornhill Couch (Chris) and Anne Thornhill Weston (Chris), and his four granddaughters: Sarah Weston (Eric Boujo), Drayton Weston Webster (Kyle), Jesse Couch Whitaker (Will), and Julia Couch.

Visitation for Mr. Thornhill will be this Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the home of his daughter, Anne Weston, at 1133 Sea Eagle Watch on James Island (wear Clemson colors if so moved). A celebration of Mr. Thornhill’s life will be held 3:00 PM Friday, November 1, 2019, at Grace Church Cathedral, followed by interment at the Cathedral Columbarium and a reception at the Cathedral’s Hanahan Hall.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Grace Church Cathedral , 98 Wentworth Street, Charleston, SC, 29401; Historic Charleston Foundation , P.O. Box 1120, Charleston, SC 29402; or Clemson University Foundation , the Thomas E. Thornhill ’48 and Mardelle M. Thornhill Unrestricted Endowment for Excellence, Clemson University Annual Giving Office, 110 Daniel Drive , Clemson, SC 29631.